Like its 2006 predecessor, America Has Talent/Against the Grain, the 2020 book now in your hands. goes deep into the absurdly comical-yet-disturbing world of televangelical confidence games. It rips open the hypocrisy of such “giants” of the field as Jim Bakker, the disgraced (though back for another payday) “minister” who originally set the stage for Tammy Faye Bakker’s stardom ­ an enterprise that backfired on him eventually -and who isn’t averse to backstage-groping a boy or two as he tries with a new broadcast partner to recapture the lightning of those days when melting mascara and hankie-wringing lured viewers to send in those donation they likely couldn’t really afford.

A New York Review Books Original An uncompromising contrarian, a passionate polemicist, a man of quick wit and wide learning, an anarchist, a pacifist, and a virtuoso of the slashing phrase, Dwight Macdonald was an indefatigable and indomitable critic of America’s susceptibility to well-meaning cultural fakery: all those estimable, eminent, prizewinning works of art that are said to be good and good for you and are not. He dubbed this phenomenon “Midcult” and he attacked it not only on aesthetic but on political grounds. Midcult rendered people complacent and compliant, secure in their common stupidity but neither happy nor free. This new selection of Macdonald’s finest essays, assembled by John Summers, the editor of The Baffler, reintroduces a remarkable American critic and writer. In the era of smart, sexy, and everything indie, Macdonald remains as pertinent and challenging as ever.

The Music on Stage conferences are a unique engine for interdisciplinary interaction, which is reflected in this compendium of the latest research by international scholars. Scholars and practitioners of operas by Handel, Mozart, Thomas, Chabrier, Korngold and Taktakishvili will find new “readings” from hitherto unexplored contexts and contemporary fine art. Also discussed is operatic lighting and the problematics of traditional lighting schemes apropos recent inventive methodologies. Popular sound development of the late 1960s is highlighted through unique oral transcripts. Other chapters discuss the intermediality of music and social media in the work of Brigitta Muntendorf; the visual transcoding of Wagner’s leitmotif technique; a new theory of Affektenlehre, and the art and politics of the Slovenian conceptual music collective Laibach.

American Woodworker magazine, A New Track Media publication, has been the premier publication for woodworkers all across America for 25 years. We are committed to providing woodworkers like you with the most accurate and up-to-date plans and information -- including new ideas, product and tool reviews, workshop tips and much, much more.